A Thought Experiment on the Jesus Story as Metaphor (or Parable)
As 21st century people living under the authoritarian thumb of science, it would be easy for us who have grown up in the Church to dismiss the Christian religion as an out-dated view of the world or as a fantasy tale designed to give us comfort in the face of death. Outright rejection of the Christian faith is an option, as is the comforting cocoon of Fundamentalism. Either reject science or reject religion.
But there is a third option. And that is to understand the whole Biblical message in a parabolic way. There is no doubt about the major way Jesus taught people. He told stories. We call them parables. Keep this in mind: the use of parables was central to the ministry of Jesus. Yes, he did use straight forward discourse at time (e.g., Sermon on the Mount), but telling parables was the foundation of his teaching method.
What is a parable? A story. A made up story. An invented tale. When you hear the parable of the Prodigal Son, you don’t hear it as a report of an actual family, but as a fictional family. The Good Samaritan story isn’t meant to be a report about an actual Samaritan and a real wounded man. It is a fictional tale told in order to make a point. This is important: Jesus used fictional stories as vehicles for truth.
Now, there are all kinds of literary terminology that can be used in discussing parables. Some New Testament scholars refer to them as ‘extended metaphors.’ It is obvious that the Bible traffics in metaphorical language (‘figures of speech’ if you prefer). The 23rd Psalm talks about God being a shepherd and believers being sheep. Well, no one believes that we are actually sheep. It’s a metaphor. The Bible is full of figures of speech. Jesus says, “I am the door.” Okay. But not really. Not a literal door; a metaphorical door. Metaphors and fiction can convey what is true.
There are Christian theologians who speak of Jesus as ‘the Symbol of God’; or as ‘the embodied Metaphor for God.’ Or we could say: the life and person of Jesus is the Parable of God.
As the Parable of God, the life and death of Jesus convey the truth about God. The story of Jesus is in some sense the story of God. Jesus is a metaphor for God. That’s what we mean when we say Jesus is God incarnate. That is, Jesus embodies or incarnates the character and nature of God without actually being God. (After all, Jesus never says, “I am God.”) Perhaps in a unique way among all religions, Jesus is the Word of God become flesh. Perhaps not. Nevertheless, Christians have encountered in Jesus the living metaphor of God; Christians hear in the narrative of Jesus of Nazareth the very story of Godself.
Let me go one step further. For the Christian faith the whole Bible is one unified narrative. There are actual historical events reported in parts of Scripture. There are real people and real places as part of the story, just as in poetry real objects are referenced in a poetic way. We can view the whole message of the Bible as one long metaphor of life’s meaning and calling. Being metaphorical doesn’t mean being untrue. Remember: metaphors, parables, and fiction can and do convey truth.
Christian theology, doctrine and dogma are rational, linear ways of explaining the meaning of our Story. Our tradition—the Christian Tradition—is one narrative of life’s meaning that has been told by people and communities of faith that have encountered the Sacred in historical events, through inspired individuals, and in intuited self-evident truth.
GOD is known through the central Jesus-Metaphor, which for Christians is the linchpin of the whole Parabolic truth of the Bible. The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus are parables that speak ultimate truth to life. The early Christians felt such power and authenticity in the life and teachings of the man Jesus that they were willing to stake their lives on the truth of Love and Reconciliation that radiated from him. Jesus, being a Jew, and using Jewish categories and Jewish sensitivities, spoke in eschatological language about the true meaning of life.
Other world religions have spoken of life’s meaning and given a moral framework which is in their essence the same as Christianity. Using different vocabularies and ritualizing from within different cultural traditions, other religions also point to the transcendent purpose of life. Even secular sources, thinkers and philosophers have intuited the basic dignity of humankind and the sacred obligation we have toward all creation.
To understand the Christian faith and especially the person of Jesus through a parabolic or metaphorical lens is not to reject the meaning of the Bible. Rather, it is to take seriously the essential message of the Biblical documents taken as a whole. To assert that a literal understanding is the only true understanding flies in the face of the Bible itself which is full of poetic and symbolic language, and to reject the very method of Jesus who taught in parables.
This is not fantasy. Jesus was a real person in a real place in history. But he embodied and taught about a kingdom that is understood in parables. This is not to ‘spiritualize’ away the truth of the Christian faith; rather, it is to receive from historical events a truth that transcends history.
Jesus said that what really matters is the love God and love neighbor. What view of Christology or the Trinity one holds doesn’t matter as long as one loves God and neighbor. To confess Jesus as Lord is to believe that loving God and neighbor are what matter. To believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to believe that what Jesus said about loving God and neighbor is the Truth that cannot be defeated—not even by death.
Jesus was right. Jesus is right. God is love. To live in communion with the God of love is to be saved from meaninglessness and meanness.
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